Tag: mormon missionaries

Why do men and women become eligible to go on a mission at different ages — i.e. men earlier than women? It seems that women mature faster than men, and so it conceivably is more logical to send women on a mission at younger ages, since they are likely more mature than a boy/man the same age.

PROVO, Utah (RNS) The 35-acre campus is an island of young people, where teens and 20-somethings outnumber grown-ups by 10-to-1.

The place is awash in fresh-faced students, and even the workers — from the cafeteria to the copy center, the mailroom to the bookstore — and most of the teachers are under 30.

Last October, President Thomas S. Monson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that instead of waiting until they were 19, young men could serve missions at 18, so long as they had finished high school. For young women, the change was even more significant: 19 instead of 21. This opened the floodgates as the number of missionaries currently serving has surged from 52,000 to 70,000 over the past eight months, and is anticipated to reach almost 100,000 by the end of this year.

Todd Brazington is a quietly confident 22-year-old. He served a mission in Costa Rica from 2009 to 2011 and looks back on those years often.

“Its hard not to look back on it. Almost every day I think about it. It makes me miss my mission a lot,” he said.

Less than a month ago Kaylee Daines, 20, of Spokane Valley, couldn’t have applied to become a Mormon missionary.

She was too young.